Growth Performance of Pigs Fed Diets Containing Fermented Mixture of Cassava Root Pulp and Palm Kernel Cake as Replacement for Maize

Abstract

The need to improve the nutritive value of lignocellulosidic feed materials for monogastric feeding has led to interest solid state fermentation (SSF) in recent years. In this study, 40 weaner pigs were used to evaluate the efficacy of SSF to improve the nutritive value of mixture of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake for pig feeding. The piglets were randomly allotted to five treatment groups (TA to TE) and fed experimental diets in which the maize in TA was replaced with fermented mixture of grated cassava root and palm kernel cake (FEMCARPP) in treatment TB (50%) and TC (100%). In treatments TD and TE, maize was replaced with a 1:1 blend of cassava meal and PKC. Data was collected on weekly on the live-weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. The results show that piglets on dietary FEMCARPP consumed less feed, had superior weight gain and similar feed conversion ratio when compared to the control fed maize based diets. The piglets fed dietary CSM-PKC consumed significantly more feed and were less efficient in utilizing their feed. It is therefore concluded that solid state fermentation improved the nutritive value of the mixture of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake for swine feeding.